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1.5.8-Doeskin-Pantaloons
Brick!Club 1.5.8: Madame Victurnien expends Thirty Francs on Morality So Madame Victurnien is utterly terrible to Fantine, but I can’t find myself feeling that she’s quite as bad as, say, the Thenardiers. Perhaps it is the lack of child abuse. Perhaps it’s the fact that the Thenardiers kind of hang around for a long time, fucking up people’s lives, and Victurnien has much more of a cameo role. Perhaps it’s the fact that, really Hugo, this is just unrealistic: They will follow up such and such a man or woman for whole days; they will do sentry duty for hours at a time on the corners of the streets, under alley-way doors at night, in cold and rain; they will bribe errand-porters, they will make the drivers of hackney-coaches and lackeys tipsy, buy a waiting-maid, suborn a porter. Like, really, do these people have nothing better to do with their time. I will accept that the Thenardier’s need to make money to keep themselves afloat. But seriously, what is Victurnien doing, other than living out some sort of bizarre Private Eye fantasy? I seriously do not understand. There is, of course, the part about her monk husband. Which is kind of interesting, in a Hugo-why-did-you-tell-us-this way. I feel like if I picked it apart, I could find some deep symbolism and meaning, but I really don’t know where to start. On the one hand, we have the monk (representative of organised religion?) treating his wife harshly, and thus she goes on to treat Fantine harshly. So we could see this as an indirect commentary on the bigoted nature of the Church. But the fact that the monk fled the Church in the revolution - and not just out of fear, but actually went so far as to become a Jacobin? - puts a whole new slant on it that I really don’t know what to do with. We could go all the way with symbolism, and suggest that the monk fleeing represents the loss of Church power and control during the revolution, and the subsequent attempts to Victurien to curry favour with the Church by being bigoted and horrible show how the Church is attempting to grasp its power once more, basically by squashing people, imposing virture, and making everyone feel guilty. I really don’t know. And finally - Valjean. As usual - what the fuck? It seems like quite a close-knit town, so I’m going to assume he had a direct hand in firing Fantine, rather than just being a figurehead on whom it was blamed. So did someone come to him and say, “Mate, one of your workers, she’s got this kid in another town what she’s trying really hard to support,” and Valjean went, “Right. I’m having none of this supporting your children lark. Not when she clearly hasn’t got pure morals. Out with her.” Because in that case, his actions in this chapter really aren’t fitting with his actions in the rest of this livre. I could call Hugo out having written himself into a corner, in which Valjean needs to be really virtuous, but also have a hand in firing Fantine, but I’m hoping we can be a bit more generous towards him. So what’s the deal? Is he trying to show us that although Valjean was trying really hard to be good, he’s still working very much within the confines and beliefs of society? (Which is really bizarre, given how much he doesn’t fit into society.) I guess this could make sense in that Valjean really wants to be a part of society, and therefore he’s going to stick by some of their conservative views. And it also aids his later plot arc, because if he’d achieve Bishop-level angelicness by now, the book would have nowhere to go later when he meets Cosette. Commentary Guinevak You’d be amazed at the shit people will pull in order to feel vindicated. They do it now, with the internet to assist them, I fully believe that they did it then. And finally - Valjean. As usual - what the fuck? It seems like quite a close-knit town, so I’m going to assume he had a direct hand in firing Fantine, rather than just being a figurehead on whom it was blamed. The next chapter begins by clarifying that this is not the case, though. He’s one guy, he has to delegate some things, and while it may be a close-knit town we’ve just had several chapters detailing how he stands apart from it. They don’t actually know him very well; they know that he’s “good” and they assume that means he shares their values and their prejudices (as we will hear from him later, he would NOT have fired Fantine himself, certainly not on the basis of “immorality”). Pilferingapples I am appreciating that “Madame Victurnien: PRIVATE EYE” is becoming a Thing. She’ll find out all those pesky secrets they’re keeping from you! Even if you really, really did not want to know. As for Valjean and his responsibility re: Fantine, I think it’s pretty clear that he just sort of handed off all that ~girly stuff~ to the overseer. SO he’s arguably responsible for not being more involved (note I say arguably) but I don’t think at all directly responsible. Doeskin-pantaloons (reply to Pilferingapples) I really feel that someone who can art ought to illustrate ‘Madame Victurnien: PRIVATE EYE’ for the benefit of all Brick!Clubbers.